griffjon

Yes; I twitter. Sue me. Or follow me. Whichever.

So does CrookedTimberite Kieran Healy; who recently tweeted the cutest twitter evar:

kjhealy A: "Daddy?" K: "Yes?" A: "Please don't sing in the car anymore." K: "Uh, OK." [Pause.] A: "Daddy?" K: "Yes?" A: "I still love you, OK?"

"We feel pretty safe in saying that we're the first people to ever make a bacon-based lollipop. And not just any bacon, either- we use sustainable, organic, cured bacon- we kinda felt that it went well with the pure Vermont maple syrup we were using as a base, you know?

While we admit that it's pretty far from the norm (it's definitely not kosher!), once you make that initial leap of faith and try it out, we're positive that you'll love it. The salty chunks of bacon make a delicious and unique counterpoint to the subtle sweetness of the maple, and oh, yeah- you'll be eating an oh-my-god bacon lollipop!

A perfect gift for the sweet-toothed pork aficionado in your life. "

--http://www.lollyphile.com/maple-bacon.php

So people think it's weird that I maintain and/or contribute to multiple "blogs" .

Yeah?

Well, so does my ... Mom.

The newest one being at My.BarackObama.com ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080627/sc_livescience/northpolecouldbeicefreethissummer

"The issue is that, for the first time that I am aware of, the North Pole is covered with extensive first-year ice," Serreze is quoted by The Independent. "I'd say it's even-odds whether the North Pole melts out."

Russia and other countries, meanwhile, have been arguing over who has rights to the region's resources, including potential oil reserves.

Several studies in recent years have predicted that the North Pole could be ice-free within a few decades. Alarm has ratcheted up every summer as the ice gets thinner and thinner. In a study released June 10, scientist said the rapid meltoff in the Arctic could threaten permafrost in continental soil elsewhere above the Arctic circle in a warm version of the snowball effect.

Factoring : Cryptography :: Debt : Class

Easy to go in, hard to get out.

Discuss.

My mother is blogging.

http://sharon-ravings.blogspot.com/

So that's pretty awesome.

We bottled last weekend and I broke in to one today to see how it's tasting; the Blond Ale is crisp and light -- not a great beer, except during summer, and it's avoiding the mild skunk that we've been having trouble with on the last few brews. The Pils we only have in larger bottles, so I'm going to trust it's doing well and give it another week to mature.


Is it sad that I'm really looking forward to rebrewing the Pumpkin Pi Porter this fall?

After some false starts, replants, serious weeding and re-mulching, the garden is doing pretty well now.

Here's the "before" shots:


And now the "in progress" shot:
 

This garden protected by Creepy Found Doll Head, Inc.:



There's one tomato almost ready, and the squash is starting to fruit.

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So I spent last week in California with A, going to Yosemite, then up to Sonoma, then San Fran and back to LA. It was a long trip but very awesome. I got to catch up with don_negro  , but sadly missed the other West Coasters. I also got to abuse my CHDK (Canon Hacker Developer Kit) scripts to take some HDR shots, which I'm still tweaking but seem good.

Yosemite was insanely crowded and also wet; which sucked. Fortunately once you get out from the vehicle-accessible spots, the crowds die down immediately, so it wasn't a disaster, and the weather improved a bit. Besides, the clouds make for dramatic HDRs:


(viewing those at full size is much more awesome)

The redwood grove was nice, but I remember Muir Woods as being more dramatic overall, but lacking redwood cameltoe and snowplants:




We hiked to the fissures near Glacier Point, and had to deal with lots of snow; for which I was not really well prepared for.



But the clouds did mask the really really really long way you fall if you misstep there. Which was nice. This was about as clear as it got:

(that's half dome in a cloud)

Sonoma was nice, but parallel to Yosemite you had to get out of the town, which was itself quite the tourist trap full of.. well, tourists.  We drove up to the Russian Creek Valley and had a great time -- basically hitting the wineries I didn't make it to last time I went winetasting in Cali (on a bike)

San Fran was challenging because we really hadn't planned it and A was having a problem with her hip making it hard for her to walk a lot.  We managed to walk most of the Embarcadero/Chinatown/Nob Hill area and used some MUNI bus/subway/things.  We still managed to have some awesome food (tho my attempt at Mexican food was thwarted, we stumbled on to an amazing Italian Place, Caffe Delucchi) The Sushi place (Koo) was good, but not life-changing.

I don't really have the heart to re-post or catch people up on the OLPC project's current problems, but feel free to read http://radian.org/notebook/sic-transit-gloria-laptopi  for a truly disheartening inside view of what's going on.  All I can say is "told ya so."

I'll be out on the West Coast at the end of this month, visiting Yosemite, Sonoma Valley and San Fran -- A and I will be staying in the Harbour Court Kimpton Motel near the bay bridge (Embarcadero BART stop) in SF on Friday and Saturday (May 30th/31st)

I'd love to connect with the San Fran folks for dinner Saturday at the very least (awesome sushi??).  Any restaurant recommendations will be welcomed.

 

ArtOMatic is this nifty artist-promotion event in DC that takes over (with permission) some huge industrial or in-progress space in DC and lets artists fill it with their work. This year it was a 10-floor monstrosity with over 1000 artists' work on display. Friday was opening night:

Cute girl interacting with a robot

What art show is complete without Peep art?  None, I say.


This has got to be the best photo ever of a camel,

chachachana , you don't even want to know what these were selling for.


"Frank Gehry's Shopping Cart" (double irony points; this was "found" art)


The title of this was "Bower Bed" and I took this photo specifically for stellarbaby     

I'll be a liaison program management officer "between" the Millennium Challenge Corporation (Bush's new aid agency) and the World Bank, working on their free trade and expansion of intellectual property initiatives in close alignment with the State Department.

As a result, I'll be taking my public blogs/websites/twitters/etc. offline and/or private so that my previous support for fair trade and open source/liberal IP policies do not conflict with my current employment.

( more job details )

http://killthecliche.com/ tracks word (over)usage in international media reporting. Amid allegations of global insurgent unrest, officials say that it's worth a click.

The parallels between the BS buyout/bailout and the_macnab's posts on the subprime mortgage disaster are both inherently related and disturbing all over again:

http://crookedtimber.org/2008/03/17/white-knights/

Clearly, under any normal circumstances, a company like this would have been left to go bankrupt. The problem is that this would jam up the entire credit market because BS is a counterparty in a vast range of transactions with other banks. (We debated this issue a month ago with a number of commentators arguing that the problem of counterparty risk was not such a big deal).

Looking ahead, the limits of the white knight strategy employed in this case must be approaching. JPM will take a while digesting this mess, and Bank of America has already done its bit when it agreed to rescue Countrywide. The other big banks have their own problems. Any future maidens in distress will have to look directly to Uncle Sam for a rescue.

Update Readers used to the natural order of things might be concerned by the implication that with such a giveaway price, the top brass at BS might be forced to bear the financial consequences of events that were obviously beyond their control. Never fear. According to this Reuters report in the Guardian, while most employees up to junior executive levels will lose both their jobs and the shares they were encouraged to buy, with no "golden parachutes"

World Bank to double Africa aid:

Causes: "Poor harvests and an increasing amount of land used to farm crops used to produce ethanol are some of the factors pushing up prices. "

"Poor harvests and an increasing amount of land used to farm crops used to produce ethanol are some of the factors pushing up prices.

"...demand has surged as rising wealth in China has led to consumers eating more meat, which means more grain is needed to feed livestock."

Central Problem: "The move comes amid climbing wheat, corn and grain costs, which pushed global food prices up by 40% last year."

Aid Problem: Basic food costs, such as bread and maize, are becoming increasingly unaffordable[sic] in the poorest countries as a result of the spiralling[sic] cost of commodities.

"There are concerns that food aid may be rationed if the high prices continue."

Solution: "[The World Bank] will contribute $700m (£348.6m) in the 12 months from June 2008, up from $400m in the the previous year period, and may boost its loans further."

The World Bank move comes after United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said one way to tackle acute food shortages would be to help Africa develop its farming capabilities and improve efficiency.

So: There's high demand for grain due to new markets (China; Ethanol) -- potentially long-term increases combined with a short-term supply shortage due to bad harvests. Naturally the price goes up; causing the poor and aid agencies providing grain problems.

So... loan the poor money to improve their farming efficiencies? Right, because that won't create a glut of grain in the market, causing prices to nosedive, meaning the loan is not repayable, and probably the local government loaned farmers the money to buy the equipment, so the onus is back on the poor. More importantly, if the poor were connected to the market in a way that they got paid more based on grain prices, this wouldn't be a problem (well, as much of one) already; but obviously this is not the case (middlemen, inefficient markets, whatever) -- so farmers having more grain to sell may not even help them, regardless of the market performance. Not to mention this whole ethanol bubble is bound to pop before any of this comes to harvest anyhow, leading to further market price drops.

Just ask Brazil about Vietnamese coffee to see how this will play out.

Updates

OK; so there's probably some ways to do this; investing in improving farming technology is not inherently a bad idea; but also not the only thing going wrong here. The market is not getting profits back to the producers, so they need to be enabled to capture that somehow. Then better equipment, even via loans, could be useful. But -- how about tying loan repayment to the market? If grain tanks to under the current value in a few months, the loan goes into deferment (maybe even reduce the principle to be repaid!); if it doesn't the repayment continues, even increasing the rate in some slow fashion.

It's telling of my LJ friends-land that I heard of Gygax's passing almost immediately via 3 different friends. Though I still think we should check his entrails for hidden treasure -- there might be a 1000GP diamond we could use to resurrect him, I'm not being (overly) glib -- just remembering him for the twisted, cruel, and very fun adventures he wrote for D&D. Indeed, cutting my D&D teeth on a few runs at the Temple of Elemental Evil set led me to the creation of a string of similar high-utility characters with a singular motive: be prepared, be creative, don't get killed. They carried around every item they could afford and carry from the PHB, be it chalk, oil, parchment, ink, or salted fish. (yes, the true-neutral bard of the original pre-COE Austin campaign and the COE shadow-walker mage/thief were both evolutions of this same concept)

Salted fish, you ask? Great for tossing behind you as you flee a "Neutral/Very Hungry" beast coming at you from a certain moathouse near the village of Hommlet. Also a good protein-rich snack!

So yes, as is par for the course of gamers, some of my earliest and fondest memories (for strange values of "fondness") come from Gygax modules.

html > body #Body > form #Form > table > tbody > tr > td > table > tbody > tr > td > span #dnn_dnnMENU_ctldnnMENU > table #tbldnn_dnnMENU_ctldnnMENUMenuBar .dnn_dnnmenu_ctldnnmenu_spmbctr MainMenu_MenuContainer > tbody > tr > td > table > tbody > tr #tddnn_dnnMENU_ctldnnMENU254 .dnn_dnnmenu_ctldnnmenu_spmitmsel dnn_dnnmenu_ctldnnmenu_spmbar MainMenu_MenuBar MainMenu_MenuItemSel > td

That's the DOM path to our top-level menu items in our current CMS at work.

This is what happens when you code beyond the Ballmer Peak

Edit: OK, I was really excited about this article below until I got to the end when it started talking about "So dramatic are the report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove vital in the US elections. Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to accept climate change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with Bush's stance are threatening to make sure Kerry uses the Pentagon report in his campaign." -- it was published in 2004. Sigh.

Ok; so now can we get something done?

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.

The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.

Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored.

'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.

When Jon's girlfriend is out of town (for long periods of time)

I took A to the airport Saturday morning. Since then:

-Swung by Home Despot, got gardening supplies (this year's big upgrade: tomato cages!) and random other junk
-aerated the old garden plot and began the process of turning another chunk of land into garden, also made sure that the grass-cuttings mulch would provide some good soil
-planted seeds for some of the begin-indoors crowd (peppers, tomatoes)
-Set our porch light and the main "gathering room" lights on timers (because no one ever turns off lights in this house)[1]
-Put one of those silly stick-anywhere battery-powered lights in the main tools/cleaning suprise [2] closet (this required fixing the craptastic solder job on one of the internal connections before it worked)
-cleaned the bathroom. Yuk. Actually, for being shared by 3 men, it wasn't too bad; it just hadn't been cleaned in too long.
-Went to the farmer's market and co-op, and safeway
-laundry, laundry, laundry
-random cleaning/straightening tasks around the room
-added insulation tape around my room door to further prevent smoke from annoying smoking roommate and to lessen the white noise effect from the only-partially-effective, but very loud, filter.


[1] GET OFF MY DAMNED LAWN, YOU KIDS!
[2] Yes, that was a Weird Al reference.